• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, August 14, 2024

A prominent animal rights organization is hoping the upcoming HBO docuseries “Chimp Crazy” will do for primate pets what “Tiger King” did for the rights of big cats.

The group -- Washington, D.C.-based Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) -- is advancing the cause of primates that are kept as house pets just as “Chimp Crazy” is poised to premiere this Sunday.

The four-episode “Chimp Crazy” focuses mainly on a Missouri woman, Tonia Haddix, a self-styled animal lover who cares for seven chimpanzees “retired” from show business that once worked in commercials and movies.

She has reportedly fallen hard for one of them, 32-year-old Tonka (above photo, right). Their relationship drew scrutiny from, among others, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The Animal Welfare Institute is supporting legislation known as the Captive Primate Safety Act. Now under consideration in the U.S. Senate, the law would effectively ban the sale and private possession of primates.

“What is truly crazy is that it’s still legal to keep primates as pets,” says Kate Dylewsky, assistant director of government affairs for AWI.

“The heart-wrenching stories of chimpanzees caught up in the pet trade must serve as a wake-up call,” she says. “These wild animals do not belong in our homes and pose a serious threat to our communities.

“Let’s pass the Captive Primate Safety Act so that this docuseries can serve as a historical narrative, instead of reflecting an ongoing animal welfare and public safety crisis.”

No one can accurately say how many primates are held as pets in the United States, AWI says.

The organization says the captivity of these animals is harmful in a number of ways. It denies them any opportunity to live “natural” lives in conformity with how they would apply their instincts in the wild.

The animals can also transmit a number of infections to humans -- bacterial, parasitic and fungal, AWI says.

In addition, such animals can almost never be completely tamed. When they turn on their owners, the results can be horrific.

“Hundreds of people have reported being injured by captive primates,” AWI says. “And many more incidents likely go unreported.”

As it happens, “Chimp Crazy” was directed by the same man who directed “Tiger King,” Eric Goode.

“Tiger King” became a sensation, in part because of the timing of its premiere on Netflix in early April 2020, only a few weeks into the new COVID-19 shutdowns and lockdowns.

As a result, “Tiger King” became, for a time, the king of TV binge-watching and was widely publicized and written about.

As the AWI points out, “Tiger King” revealed many of the same issues raised in “Chimp Crazy” as they pertained to the plights of big cats held in captivity in self-styled zoos and road-side exhibits.

It too led to legislation, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which was passed in December 2022 and outlawed the sale of big cats as pets, AWI says.